"Rhodes Must Fall": Student Activism and the Politics of Memory at the University of Cape Town, South Africa

Simple item page
dc.contributorMorgan, Lynn
dc.contributorBrown, Kimberly Juanita
dc.contributor.advisorLass, Andrew
dc.contributor.authorLaurore, Chrislyn Laurie
dc.date.accessioned2016-05-25T17:20:06Z
dc.date.available2016-05-25T17:20:06Z
dc.date.gradyear2016en_US
dc.date.issued2016-05-25
dc.description.abstractLaunched at the University of Cape Town on March 9, 2015, the Rhodes Must Fall movement is a student-led initiative that advocated for the removal of the statue of Cecil John Rhodes from the University’s upper campus. The commemorative statue occupied several spaces on UCT’s campus since it was donated to the University in 1931 and was moved to a more prominent position atop the Jameson steps in 1996. The statue was removed on April 9, 2015; one month after the movement began. Protests continued even after the statue “fell” the following month – and continue still – speaking to the many structural injustices associated with the material object. Using archival research as well as narrative accounts obtained from social media posts and interviews with students directly involved in the movement, this paper demonstrates how Rhodes Must Fall draws from the past to challenge present-day narratives of South Africa, the post-apartheid “rainbow nation”. Locating Rhodes Must Fall within a global climate of heightened awareness, activism, and Black consciousness facilitated by social media and the Black Lives Matter movement, I also explore the ways in which age and racial identity are renegotiated through the performance of protest.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipSociology & Anthropologyen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10166/3752
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States*
dc.rights.restrictedpublicen_US
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/*
dc.subjectstudent activismen_US
dc.subjectpolitics of memoryen_US
dc.subjectSouth Africaen_US
dc.subjectapartheiden_US
dc.subjectCecil Rhodesen_US
dc.subjectRainbow Nationen_US
dc.subjectcolonialismen_US
dc.subjectpostcolonialismen_US
dc.subjectsocial mediaen_US
dc.subjecthistoryen_US
dc.subjectidentityen_US
dc.subjectracismen_US
dc.subjectcosmopolitanismen_US
dc.subjectglobal citiesen_US
dc.subjectstudy abroaden_US
dc.subjectstatueen_US
dc.subjectpublic sculptureen_US
dc.subjectprotesten_US
dc.subjectCape Townen_US
dc.subjectBlack Lives Matteren_US
dc.title"Rhodes Must Fall": Student Activism and the Politics of Memory at the University of Cape Town, South Africaen_US
dc.typeThesis
mhc.degreeUndergraduateen_US
mhc.institutionMount Holyoke College

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Laurore_Thesis_RhodesMustFall_Politics of Memory.pdf
Size:
2.08 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Main article
Download

Collections

Student Theses and Honors Collection